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The purpose of this paper is to focus on the risk decision making of entrepreneurial team, deconstruct the intermediate process mechanism of cognitive adaptability in promoting risk decision making and reveal the role of opportunity identification and entrepreneurial efficacy in the decision-making process, which clarifies how cognitive adaptability affects decision-making speed and effect.

This study establishes a relationship model among entrepreneurial team’s cognitive adaptability, opportunity identification, entrepreneurial efficacy and risk decision making, and selects 316 entrepreneurial teams to empirically study the relationship among core variables using Bootstrap analysis and Johnson–Neyman technology.

Cognitive adaptability though has no direct impact on risk decision-making speed, whereas it directly affects risk decision-making effect; opportunity identification has a full mediating effect between cognitive adaptability and decision-making speed, and a partial mediating effect between cognitive adaptability and decision-making effect; entrepreneurial efficacy plays a moderating role between opportunity identification and decision-making speed, and a same role between opportunity identification and decision-making effect.

First, in setting the research model, the study does not take other moderators into consideration, which might be improved. Second, the study ignores the origin and formation of entrepreneurial team’s cognitive adaptability, the predisposing factors of which might be discussed in the future research.

The practical implication of this paper is to guide the entrepreneurial team to turn their focus on the impact of highly implicit cognitive adaptability on decision making, which might be divided into two aspects: the first is to enhance the cognitive adaptability of the entrepreneurial team, cultivate team members’ self-examination awareness and self-monitoring habits. The second is to strengthen team’s psychological capital and value the cultivation of entrepreneurial efficacy.

This paper breaks through the team process and structure perspectives, explores the driving mechanism of entrepreneurial team risk decision making from team cognition perspective, and deconstructs the logical framework of cognitive adaptability’s influence on risk decision making. This paper applies Johnson–Neyman technology to quantify the mediating effect entrepreneurial efficacy exerts on cognitive adaptability and decision-making speed, as well as on cognitive adaptability and decision-making effect.

The purpose of this paper is to explore one of the cognitive processes whereby persons develop intentions to enact entrepreneurial behaviours via exploring entrepreneurial identification as a significant influence on an individual’s intentions to recognise and exploit opportunities.

In this conceptual paper, insights from Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour are utilised to develop propositions regarding the influence of entrepreneurial identification on intentions to search for opportunities and commit resources to exploiting opportunities. The role of two behavioural controls – entrepreneurial munificence and domain relevant knowledge – are discussed as influencing both an individual’s ability and desire to recognise and exploit opportunities. Opportunity recognition and exploitation are also suggested to reinforce an individual’s entrepreneurial identification, creating a recursive relationship between identification and entrepreneurial behaviour.

The lack of insight into cognitive processes has contributed to what some have labelled the “death” of intentions research in entrepreneurship. In exploring identification, this study suggests that measuring identification – in place of attitudes toward entrepreneurship – may actually refine analytical models based on Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour.

Ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour has often been applied in entrepreneurial studies, but for the voluminous body of research devoted to intentions, little has delved into the cognitive processes whereby people develop intentions to entrepreneurial behaviours. This paper provides a conceptually unique marrying of identification with entrepreneurial intentions in an attempt to redress this gap in the entrepreneurship literature. This study also speculates as to how practitioners – educators, legislators or managers – might profitably use this study to guide their efforts to reinforce entrepreneurial behaviours in the classrooms, organisations and communities.

Taking entrepreneurial opportunity identification activity as a starting point, the purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the differences within the social background of the Chinese nascent entrepreneurs and to illuminate differences in the success of their economic activities.

This study will analyze the impact of the nascent entrepreneurs' social class identity and prior experience affiliation on entrepreneurial opportunity identification and the moderation effect of opportunity identification modes. The empirical study was conducted with the data from the “Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics (CPSED)” project, especially targeting new technology venture samples.

The findings indicate that the social class identity and prior experience affiliation of nascent entrepreneurs (pre‐determined factors) have a significant impact on the innovativeness of their entrepreneurial identification. Because they determine opportunity identification results, these pre‐determined factors play a much more important role than the mode of the opportunity identification.

The findings provide a theoretical contribution to the transitional study with the unique data of the CPSED project. This study could be taken as the comparison for transnational cooperation and provides suggestions to government and entrepreneurship supporting agencies.

Guided by the proposed opportunity and resource integrative entrepreneurial growth model, the purpose of this paper is to explore how different opportunity type firms grow integrally and what the laws for different opportunity integration growth modes are.

A multiple case study on six firms in information and communication technologies industry in China is conducted.

Three types of entrepreneurial opportunities exist. These are identification type opportunity, discovery type opportunity, and creation type opportunity. Entrepreneurship among the three types of entrepreneurial opportunities operates under different laws. For each type of entrepreneurial opportunity, firms need to balance the two growth modes, namely, the opportunity identification and assessment/resource allocation mode and the opportunity utilization and resource identification/acquisition mode, in order to achieve a leveraging effect.

Vertical comparison is missing.

Firms need to balance the two growth modes, namely, opportunity identification and assessment and resource allocation mode and opportunity utilization and resource identification and acquisition mode, to achieve leverage effect.

This paper integrates system theory with entrepreneurship research and proposes the opportunity and resource integrative entrepreneurial growth model. This model is helpful, both in aiding firms to follow the laws for entrepreneurial opportunities and to identify entrepreneurial opportunities. The business model plays a vital role in entrepreneurship. Firms taking advantage of the Internet of Things are more likely to gain a competitive advantage and to achieve success in their entrepreneurial activities.

Entrepreneurial and strategic actions are crucial for wealth creation, and the business opportunity is a critical factor in this process. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the firm’s strategic posture in the relationship between individual alertness and opportunity identification within an existing firm. This approach contributes to entrepreneurship theory building through a multilevel study.

The quantitative research focuses on understanding the mediating role of an organization’s strategic posture in the opportunity identification process. Using a sample of 276 firms, this study tests a two-level model to explain opportunity identification.

The findings provide empirical evidence that a firm’s strategic posture mediates the relationship between individual alertness and opportunity identification. Furthermore, this study finds differences in the mediating role of a firm’s strategic posture through which entrepreneurs and managers affect opportunity identification. Years after the creation of startup, the entrepreneurs still exhibit entrepreneurial characteristics that affect opportunity identification. The findings provide evidence that entrepreneurs foster an internal culture and set of values that are more favorable to radical innovation, compared to managers who favor incremental and less risky projects.

The findings suggest the possibility for new theory building that can improve the fields of entrepreneurship and management research. Moreover, the proposed model constitutes a new approach to analyze the mediating role of an organization’s strategic posture in the opportunity identification process.

This paper provides an original approach to literature in exploring the relationship between entrepreneurial alertness and firm’s strategic posture in explaining the opportunity identification process. This work will help expand the theory building that explores differences between managers and entrepreneurs in organizations.

Studies of entrepreneurial action often distinguish between different phases such as opportunity identification, evaluation, and exploitation. Yet, the richness of past contributions masks the absence of an integral framework to organize, in a theoretically consistent ensemble, the different kinds of cognitive processes that underpin entrepreneurial action. In this chapter, we draw from research on human action and cognition to offer an integrative model of the cognitive processes that foster entrepreneurial action. By presenting a more specific articulation of when, how, and why different cognitive processes operate, we provide theorists and empiricists with a more complete picture of how entrepreneurs’ thinking evolves from the emergence of an opportunity idea to the initiation of concrete entrepreneurial acts. In addition, our framework draws attention to cognitive inflection points that entrepreneurs must navigate in their journey toward entrepreneurship. By explicitly locating these inflection points and specifying the changes in mental processing that occurs at each point, we highlight that for entrepreneurial action to ensue, entrepreneurs must shift from one type of cognitive processing to another. Along this line, our model draws attention to the entire set of cognitive “skills” entrepreneurs must master for successful completion of each phase and successful transitions between phases.

This paper aims to highlight the possibility that the same cultural and/or institutional environment can differentially affect each of the two moments of entrepreneurship – opportunity identification and opportunity exploitation. It is possible that the cultural and institutional environment in a particular place may encourage opportunity identification, but discourage opportunity exploitation, or vice versa. Specifically, this paper argues that understanding entrepreneurship in Trinidad and Tobago requires that we focus on how Trinidadian culture and institutions differentially affect both moments of entrepreneurship.

To examine how Trinidad and Tobago’s culture and institutions affect entrepreneurial opportunity identification and exploitation in that country, the paper uses a qualitative approach. In total, 25 subjects agreed to interviews, conducted in July and August 2009 in Trinidad. The questions were geared at understanding attitudes toward work and entrepreneurship in Trinidad, and how politics, culture and ethnicity interacted with those attitudes. The paper also examined institutional indicators from the Economic Freedom of the World: 2013 Annual Report and the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business Report.

The research identified features of the cultural and institutional environment in Trinidad and Tobago that help to explain why opportunity identification is relatively common among all ethnic groups there, but why opportunity exploitation appears relatively suppressed among African–Trinidadians. In particular, the research finds that the inheritance of British institutions, a post-colonial political culture, a post-colonial business culture and ethnically based social networks all have positive and negative influences on each moment of entrepreneurship.

Further research would involve an analysis of a wider set of both formal and informal entrepreneurial activities in Trinidad and Tobago, across industries and periods.

This paper has implications for understanding the complex nature of entrepreneurship, which many policymakers try to encourage, but which is shaped by deep cultural and historical factors, and also indirectly influenced by state policies and laws.

Ethnic patterns in entrepreneurship shape the way groups see themselves and others.

While authors writing about opportunity recognition/identification and opportunity exploitation have captured the important dimensions of entrepreneurship, they underestimate the possibility of a disconnect between entrepreneurial identification and exploitation. Focusing on instances where the disconnect exists allows us to move away from characterizations of cultures as progress-prone or progress-resistant, and instead allows us to focus on these gaps between identifying and exploiting entrepreneurship across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to examine franchisees’ business start-ups from an entrepreneurial perspective, adopting a process representative of entrepreneurship to examine opportunity identification and evaluation by franchisees and to analyse factors that influence this process.

A qualitative study was employed and data collected using semi-structured interviews with a sample of service industry franchisees in Macau.

The study identifies that social networks play a key role in opportunity identification and that franchisees’ goals influence the criteria used and information search activities undertaken while evaluating franchise opportunities.

The study makes two contributions to franchise literature. It identifies that social networks can serve as substitutes for lack of prior knowledge in franchise opportunity identification. It also identifies the interrelated nature of franchisees’ goals based on the activities and criteria used to evaluate franchise opportunities, and the importance of relational criteria when franchisees lack prior industry knowledge. It therefore also contributes to franchise/entrepreneurship literature by identifying the interrelated nature of the factors contributing to the dynamics of franchise chain growth.

Franchisors should explore how to better use franchisees’ social networks and identify the longer term goals of prospective franchisees to support market penetration and franchise chain growth. Franchisees are advised to use independent information sources to evaluate franchise opportunities using goal-informed objectives and demand and relational criteria.

The study presents a more comprehensive understanding of franchisees’ decision-making process when joining franchise chains by identifying the activities undertaken and criteria used to identify and evaluate franchise opportunities.

Entrepreneurial opportunity (EO) identification pertains to the core processes of entrepreneurship and innovation. The initial phase of this process starts with individual cognition, which is why cognition has been established as a critical theoretical perspective.

Knowledge and new information have been confirmed as essential cognitive impact factors. However, it is not understood well, how individuals apply those factors and how they actually identify innovative and economically viable EOs. To address the limitations of current research, this chapter investigates the current literature on underlying cognitive processes of opportunity identification.

The literature analysis demonstrates that there is not a single cognitive process but rather a magnitude of different micro-mechanisms that are necessary for the successful identification of EOs. The findings are grouped to four categories of cognitive processes and entail their micro-mechanisms: pattern recognition, information processing, and creative thinking. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that those micro-mechanisms have seldom been related to each other within the scope of opportunity identification. This chapter closes this gap by discussing and contrasting and the different process categories and respective micro-mechanisms and suggests an integrative theory development and avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how gender affects the number and innovativeness of business opportunities identified by future entrepreneurs in Mexico.

Comparing social feminist theory and human capital theory, this study examines the effect that human capital has on opportunity identification among men and women in Mexico. The authors specifically examine the role of specific and general human capital in the opportunity identification process. A survey instrument was applied to 174 MBA students at a university in Northeastern Mexico.

This study shows the significant effect of specific human capital: people with greater prior knowledge of customer needs or problems tended to identify more opportunities; however, the probability of identifying opportunities with innovation increased when individuals had been exposed to different industries through prior work and entrepreneurial experience. Gender differences were not significant for either the number of opportunities identified or the innovativeness of such opportunities.

This study provides evidence of the effect that human capital and gender have on opportunity identification in Mexico and provides an explanation within a context that has not been studied previously.